National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
On the 3rd of March 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law that created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The legislation slipped through Congress almost unnoticed as a rider attached to the Naval Appropriations Bill. Twelve unpaid members formed the initial committee with an annual budget of just five thousand dollars. Senator Benjamin R. Tillman and Representative Ernest W. Roberts introduced identical resolutions in January 1915 recommending the creation of this advisory body. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution since 1907, had taken up the effort after earlier attempts failed. President William Howard Taft appointed a commission chaired by Robert S. Woodward in December 1912, but Congress defeated the legislation when it came to a vote early in 1913. Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, heartily endorsed the principle behind the new agency. The act defined the committee's duty as supervising and directing the scientific study of flight problems with practical solutions in mind. This emergency measure during World War I modeled itself on European agencies like the British Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
NACA established its first wind tunnel at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on the 11th of June 1920. By 1922, the agency employed one hundred people who worked across facilities including Ames Aeronautical Laboratory and the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. Engineers developed unauthorized bootleg research projects that led to fundamental breakthroughs like thin airfoil theory in the 1920s. The Variable Density Tunnel opened in 1922 while the Propeller Research Tunnel followed in 1927. Lockheed engineers complained in 1941 that NACA wind tunnels could not reach speeds above Mach 0.5, setting their P-38 Lightning development back by a year. General Henry H. Arnold overruled these objections and authorized construction of high-speed tunnels. Moffett Field achieved Mach 0.75 in late 1942 through its new eight-foot diameter tunnel. Orville Wright joined NACA's board on the 29th of January 1920 as a pioneering flier and aviation engineer. The agency maintained facilities at Hampton Virginia, Moffett Field California, and Edwards Air Force Base for flight testing.
Engineers from NACA solved supercharger problems for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers during World War II. These solutions enabled aircraft to maintain power at altitudes exceeding fifteen thousand feet where Axis forces struggled to counter American advantages. Nearly every major U.S. military powerplant of the Second World War relied on information developed by NACA research. British government officials requested a new fighter aircraft after finding North American Aviation's P-40 Tomahawk too outdated for European standards. North American chose a NACA-developed airfoil for what became the P-51 Mustang fighter. This design allowed the aircraft to perform dramatically better than previous models. The laminar wing profiles produced by NACA researchers provided critical advantages for Allied aircraft throughout the conflict. Military and civilian clients could use NACA facilities on contract basis while commercial applications emerged alongside wartime needs. The agency earned description as The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy due to its key role in producing working superchargers.
John Stack headed NACA's compressibility division when the Bell X-1 program began conceptual designs in 1945. Army Air Technical Service Command awarded Bell Aircraft a contract for three transonic and supersonic research aircraft under project designation MX-653 on the 16th of March 1945. Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 beyond Mach 1 while NACA officially managed testing and development of the aircraft. Wind tunnel data proved unreliable during subsonic and supersonic airflow experiments over wings creating undesirable characteristics. A specialized research aircraft offered the best means of getting supersonic aeronautical data according to John Stack, Ezra Kotchner, and Walter Diehl. Stack personally received the Collier Trophy along with Bell Aircraft owner and test pilot Chuck Yeager from Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners. Compressibility remained a major issue as aircraft approached Mach 1 requiring extensive wind tunnel testing to assist Lockheed with P-38 Lightning problems. The X-1 program first envisioned technological challenges facing aircraft designers in late 1930s and early 1940s.
Richard Whitcomb determined the area rule explaining transonic flow over an aircraft in 1951 at NACA Ames Research Center. Convair F-102 production had already begun when engineers discovered the problem preventing the supersonic interceptor from exceeding sound speed. Production lines required modification to allow existing F-102s to use the area rule concept. Aircraft so altered became known as area ruled aircraft though they exceeded Mach 1 only by small margins. The F11F Tiger incorporated this theory during initial design allowing it to break the sound barrier without afterburner. Whitcombs work on both Tiger and F-102 earned him the Collier Trophy in 1955 after years of classification. The B-58 Hustler bomber redesign took area rule into effect enabling greatly improved performance reaching Mach 2. Soviet fighters had just attained that speed months earlier when the most important design resulting from area rule entered development. All modern transonic and supersonic aircraft now use the area rule concept developed through NACA research.
Hugh Dryden, NACA director, established Special Committee on Space Technology on the 21st of November 1957. Guyford Stever chaired what became known as the Stever Committee with mandate to coordinate federal branches, private companies, and universities. Wernher von Braun prepared Jupiter C rocket for satellite launch in 1956 before Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in October 1957. James Killian wrote memorandum Organization for Civil Space Programs to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the 5th of March 1958. He encouraged creation of NASA based on strengthened and redesignated NACA which employed seven thousand five hundred people. The agency possessed three hundred million dollars worth of facilities ready to expand research program with minimum delay. On the 14th of January 1958, Dryden published A National Research Program for Space Technology outlining future directions. Congress dissolved NACA on the 1st of October 1958 transferring assets and personnel to newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The transformation provided model for postwar government laboratories and successor space agency operations.
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Common questions
When was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics created by President Woodrow Wilson?
President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law creating the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on the 3rd of March 1915. The legislation passed through Congress as a rider attached to the Naval Appropriations Bill.
What were the initial budget and staffing numbers for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1915?
The initial committee consisted of twelve unpaid members with an annual budget of just five thousand dollars. Senator Benjamin R. Tillman and Representative Ernest W. Roberts introduced identical resolutions recommending this advisory body in January 1915.
How did NACA research contribute to Allied aircraft performance during World War II?
Engineers from NACA solved supercharger problems for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers enabling aircraft to maintain power at altitudes exceeding fifteen thousand feet. North American Aviation chose a NACA-developed airfoil for what became the P-51 Mustang fighter which performed dramatically better than previous models.
Who developed the area rule concept used in modern transonic and supersonic aircraft design?
Richard Whitcomb determined the area rule explaining transonic flow over an aircraft in 1951 at NACA Ames Research Center. All modern transonic and supersonic aircraft now use the area rule concept developed through NACA research.
When was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics dissolved and transferred to NASA?
Congress dissolved the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on the 1st of October 1958 transferring assets and personnel to newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration. James Killian wrote a memorandum to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the 5th of March 1958 encouraging creation of NASA based on strengthened and redesignated NACA.